Tempt Fate | Orochimaru x Reader

12 - Training

The following days, you didn't see Orochimaru often, he seemed busy with something else. You rarely saw Kabuto as well, in the morning your breakfast was brought by a person you'd never seen before, he seemed to work for Orochimaru as well.

The time wihout Orochimaru you spent training. Only slowly progressing in the art of the blood manipulation jutsu since you couldn't lose to much blood at once. If you had a higher amount of chakra it would all be easier. Your play pretend enemies were mostly tree stumps you would throw kunais at and hit with your katana. All this time on your own wasn't all as good as you expected, you started to miss the snake sannin and wondered what he was up to.

-

After training like this for a week, you finally made some progress, actually managing to make the blood take a shape, eventhough it wasn't more than a small needle. At this point though even a small needle made you full of pride. "Not long until we meet again.." You thought, thinking of your old friends and companions.

-

The sun was starting to set so you decided to quit for the day and go to sleep. You were happy with your achievements, tomorrow you might even be able to create something bigger. You casually wrapped a bandage around you left arm, already used to the motion. Then from behind, your heard a voice you didn't think you'd hear again so soon.

"Is your training going smoothly"? You jumped in surprise only to look up and see Orochimaru standing in front of you, he approached you without making a single sound. He chuckled at your surprised face. "You don't have to tell me, I know what's going on around here, for the most part." He added. "I'm satisfied with your progress so far but you seem to lack real combat practice with shinobi on your level." You nodded. "Yes it's been a while since I've been in a real fight." He was right, those tree stumps and dummies were easy targets, that didn't fight back. How would your abilities serve you in a real battle. "What should I do about it?" You questioned.

"Well" He started. He had thought about this before but decided this was the best turn of action, especially to get them away from Kabuto. "I was thinking of going on a trip, don't think of this as anything related to vacation. As I said before, I can give you even greater power, you're going to be much stronger when we return." We? He was going to accompany you on a trip? This was pretty unexpected. He realized your hesitant demeanor. "Well, that's not the only reason, I need to get some intel about the leaf. And now that I'd rather not send Kabuto..." There it was again, his distrust in Kabuto, now you were sure, something had happened between them.

"I understand, I'll try my best." You replied confidently. "Good." He said with a smirk. The soft wind playing with strands of his long black hair. You had to admit that he wasn't bad looking or anything, skin like porcelain and intense glowing snake like eyes, definitely unique. You quickly averted your gaze, noticing that you had stared for too long. As there was no comment from him you wanted to take another glance, only to see that he had vanished. Seems he was too busy to say goodbye to you.

-

Back in your room, laying on your bed, you noticed that goodbye wasn't the only thing he forgot to say. He didn't even tell you when you'd be heading off. You sighed at the thought of having to get up again. Rest had been rare the last few days so you treasured every moment you had to laze around. It couldn't be helped, you had to go ask, you wanted to get ready on time. You crawled out from underneath the soft sheets, your sore muscles aching. "He should've just told me..." You whined.

-

You decided to head for his labarotary since you deemed it to be the most likely place for him to be. Due to your exhaustion, the hallways seemed even longer than usual. Step by step you finally arrived at the familiar door. "Here I go." You knocked on the door, not having to wait long for an answer. "Kabuto? I told you to not disturb me." Orochimaru hissed from inside. Oh shit, he didn't seem to be in a good mood. Hoping he'd have a different attitude towards you than Kabuto, you opened the door slightly. "Orochimaru-sama? I'm sorry, I just-" You were interrupted by a sigh and his now more relaxed voice. "Ah it's you, come in." He replied, but seemed absent minded.

As soon as you stepped through the door and spotted the man, you saw what was consuming all of his attention. He seemed to be operating on a person, leaning over their body. "Oh no, I'm sorry to interrupt." You felt like your timing was awful. He sighed again and straightened his posture, taking a few steps away from the body and looking at you. He was wearing surgical gloves but everything else was as you knew it.

He took said gloves off, putting them down on the table behind him. "No success again, it's useless." He Scoffed. "Shit." You were a little surprised seeing him so frustrated. He always seemed calm and collected, to have full control of all of his emotions. His voice pulled you out of your thoughts. "Well, why did you come here?" For a second you forgot why but then it came back to you. "It's just that I wanted to ask when you plan on heading off." He raised a brow. "I didn't tell you?" He asked? Seemed like he really forgot, even though it was uncharacteristic. "No you didn't." You answered his question. "In two days, I expect you in the morning at 10, meet me on the clearing." You hummed and nodded. Pretty clear instructions.

"Before you leave, get rid of this body, will you?" You looked at him confused. Get... rid of it? Orochimaru shook his head head. Now that he didn't rely on Kabuto as much anymore he lacked an assistant do take care of these kinds of things. He knew very well that Y/N wasn't the perfect replacement for Kabuto. "Let me show you." He said and started lifting up the now lifeless body by its shoulders, waving you to come over and help. You grabbed the corpse by its legs and helped Orochimaru lift it up from the table.

Orochimaru walked backwards, allowing you to walk forwards. Again, you went in a different direction to a part of the hideout you'd never been in. After turning a corner, you couldn't help but gasp. There was one cell after the other, housing multiple people on very limited space. As soon as they saw Orochimaru enter the corridor, their eyes widened and everyone tried to get to the cells far end. They were absolutely terrified of him. You saw some of them, looking at you, begging you to help them with their panicked gazes but their bodies seemed to relax slightly as you passed cell by cell. Orochimaru seemed to just ignore them, he was used to the sight.

You expected there to be something like this somehwere in the hideout but actually seeing it was shocking. You decided to not allow yourself to think about it. You couldn't help them, that was a fact so you tried your best to not feel guilty for doing nothing.

After a long while walking through the jail hallways you finally seemed to arrive at your destination He opened the door by pressing his back against it. It opened to reveal a big hall, the smell was absolutely horrific. It was too dark to see anything but this seemed to be the place where he dumped all of the people he had no use for anymore. You walked a little to the back of the room and threw the body on a pile of corpses.

"I expect you to be able to do this by yourself next time." Was the last thing he said before you two parted ways.